Chocolate Chip Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Bread

This Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Bread is so rich, moist and delicious no one will ever know that the secret ingredient is zucchini.

My husband loves to eat little zucchini from the garden, but he won’t eat the big ones that I wait a bit too long to pick. So I’ve been baking zucchini bread for the last few months. There have been lots of great zucchini recipes posted the past summers and I tried many of them over the years.

I was especially attracted to the recipes that didn’t use as much oil. Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod posted a delicious, healthy zucchini bread with cranberries, whole wheat flour and applesauce to replace some of the oil.

Sara from Our Best Bites posted a chocolate zucchini bread that she described as “so light and moist and chocolaty that it’s pretty much cake in a loaf pan.” Declaring it “the one.” How could I not try “the one.”

I love her version too. I loved it so much in fact that I made five different versions of it. Her original Chocolate Chocolate Chip with cinnamon topping, Chocolate Chocolate Chip without cinnamon (my kids favorite), her Spiced Zucchini Bread with a hint of orange, Orange Cherry Zucchini Bread with orange oil and cardamom, and my favorite version, inspired by Hilda’s guest post on Jamie’s blog Life’s a Feast, this Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

The water content in the zucchini you grow in your own garden can vary a lot. Especially if you have a few rainy days.

One trick I like to use when I’m making zucchini bread is to spin the grated zucchini in a salad spinner. It removes the excess water from the zucchini so you get consistent results every time.

Even if you don’t have a garden overflowing with zucchini, it’s inexpensive to buy at the market. So pick some up and give this Chocolate Chip Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Bread a try!

I’ve been trying to do more videos for my recipes. People really love videos, especially on Facebook. In this video I didn’t add the brown sugar when I was adding the other wet ingredients, and I forgot to add the topping before I put the bread in the oven. So don’t forget those when you make it 🙂

Yield: 2 medium loafs

Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Prep Time15 minutes

Cook Time1 hour

Total Time1 hour15 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

3 cups grated zucchini

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup shredded coconut

Topping:

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions

Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla until blended. Add sour cream and whisk to combine.

Add dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Stir in zucchini, chocolate chips, and coconut.

Divide batter between pans. Sprinkle coconut and chocolate chips on top of batter in pans.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Bake mini loaves for about 35 minutes.) Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Then remove from the pan and cool on a rack. (Be careful not to burn yourself on the hot chocolate chips when removing it from the pan.)

My zucchini plant died, but I have patti pan squash coming out my ears. Do you think I could use that instead? It tastes similar to me – mild squash flavor. When I saute it in a pan, it seems just about as watery as zucchini. I’d appreciate your thoughts about the swap.

How did you know I have zucchini busting out of my garden, Barbara? 😉 It’s coming in fast and furious…if my arm was long enough to reach you, I’d be more than happy to share! They’ve been keeping me busy in the kitchen trying new zucchini bread flavors. I know we’d love this one-those loaves look wonderful. Great idea using the salad spinner to get the excess water out too-I sometimes grab my potato ricer to give the shredded zucchini a gentle squeeze.

I was baking yesterday and my husband requested something with coconut. I already had a cookie recipe I was going to try so put the coconut on the back burner. I am going to try this soon as it looks great!

Awesome recipe!!! Made this twice on the wnekeed, and every time it was a huge hit. Very simple to make, and the kids loved it even though it was loaded with Zucchini and all good things!I used the large chocolate chip since that’s all i had on hand, but it still tasted great!